This week at the Rose Dynasty Center, news from a federal court of appeals in Georgia came as a shock.
“It’s just a bunch of ignorance and hate and fear-mongering that’s happening and it’s sad. It’s heartbreaking,” said Jason DeShazo, founder of The Rose Dynasty Center, which provides services to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
This week, a federal appeals court in Georgia sided 2-1 with the state of Florida on a law which bans gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormonal treatments, and requires transgender adults be treated by a doctor.
“These trans folks have no services or are not able to get services with us or other places,” DeShazo said. “They’re having to wait 3, 6 months or longer to even get an appointment to see someone.”
Every Wednesday at Rose Dynasty Center, Pineapple Healthcare provides gender-affirming care to patients using nurse practitioners, not doctors.
“Nurse practitioners can provide care in everything else,” said Andres Acosta Ardila with Pineapple Healthcare. “This is something that is targeting the Trans adults, and it’s doing it so they don’t have access to care.”
Ardila said 64 patients of Pineapple Healthcare are impacted by this new law, including patients from the Rose Dynasty Center.
“The state was right to do what we did,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “It’s going to protect people. It’s going to avert a lot of harm that’s being done in other parts of the country.”
DeSantis said in an unrelated news conference in Citrus County Tuesday the court ruling was a “no brainer” and referred to transgender health care treatments as “junk science.”
“We just need to be right with what’s true and factual, and we cannot get carried away by ideological agendas,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also repeatedly referred to the “mutilation” of children, though experts say it is rare for minors to receive gender-affirming surgery.
He also accused health care providers of being motivated by money.
“Here’s the secret on this,” DeSantis said. “There’s a lot of people that make money on these surgeries. That’s why it’s going on.”
“We do not go out and search for people to be transgender,” DeShazo said. “They come to us, and they come to us for services and they know the services are offered.”
DeShazo and Ardila both said they are working with their patients to find doctors who will provide gender-affirming care moving forward.
They hope the law will be appealed again. DeSantis is adamant the law is constitutional.